An NIH study found that two common “forever chemicals” may be associated with a higher risk of aggressive ER-negative breast cancer.
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Vibrating mirrors of light create analog of a black hole event horizon
Optical cavities are pairs of light-trapping mirrors and underpin the operation of lasers, atomic clocks and many types of precision sensors. If the distance between the mirrors is changed rapidly enough, some theories predict that the waves inside them should bunch together into short, intense pulses. So far, however, this prediction has never been tested directly.
Through new experiments, David Weld and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have confirmed it for the first time by swapping the roles of light and matter. Strikingly, they found that the cavity behaves in ways that mimic the strange physics of curved spacetime.
Their results have been published in Physical Review Letters.
How a metabolite protects the enzyme that consumes it
Metabolites are consumed by enzymes to produce other vital molecules as well as to control metabolite levels. But how do cells avoid consuming too much? Researchers from the MPI of Biochemistry, with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the de Duve Institute in Brussels, have deciphered such molecular regulation in tryptophan metabolism. The essential amino acid tryptophan binds to a second site on the enzyme TDO2, distinct from where it is consumed. This sequesters a region needed by two effectors, the kinase CK2 and the ubiquitin ligase CUL1–β-TrCP, which act sequentially to signal TDO2 degradation. The findings are now published in Molecular Cell.
The essential amino acid tryptophan is a key building block for proteins and also serves as a precursor for serotonin, melatonin, niacin (vitamin B3) and NAD+. These molecules are vital for the nervous and immune systems and the cell’s energy supply. As tryptophan can only be obtained through dietary supply, the body must maintain tryptophan levels within a physiological range.
The enzyme tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO2) carries out the first and rate-limiting step of the kynurenine pathway. While the cell requires the downstream products of TDO2, it must also avoid consuming too much tryptophan.
New method measures microplastics in the air using an uncrewed aerial system
Microplastics have been found in our bodies and the food we eat—and even in remote environments around the world, including seawater and ice in the Arctic. Despite their prevalence, little is known about how they move through the atmosphere. New CIRES-led research, which demonstrates a new method for sampling microplastics in the atmosphere using an uncrewed aerial system (UAS), aims to change that. The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.
“Atmospheric microplastics are usually sampled from a rooftop, ground-based location or ship,” said Radiance Calmer, a former CIRES researcher who is now working at the Norwegian Polar Institute and lead author of the paper. “Our proof-of-concept study shows we can sample atmospheric microplastics using UAS flights for a specific height.”
Their results not only indicate microplastics are present 100 meters (328 feet) high in the atmosphere near areas with intense human activity but also confirm the team’s UAS sampling method is a feasible approach for measuring microplastics in the atmosphere. They are the first team to successfully use an environmental cyclone sampler on a UAS to collect microplastics.
From chaos to ‘intelligent’ soft matter—how tiny chemical differences guide droplets into ordered structures
Disorder can make sense, and understanding its logic can be genuinely useful. A study by a research group at the University of Trento shows how a minimal chemical difference can turn chaotic, disordered motion into a highly coordinated and reproducible structure.
The study, carried out together with researchers from Sorbonne University in Paris and the University of Copenhagen, was published in the journal npj Soft Matter.
Quantum gas microscope reveals individual atoms in first tunable three-component Hubbard system
For the first time, an international team of researchers from Germany, Thailand, India, China and the United States has created a three-component Hubbard system with tunable interactions in the laboratory. In doing so, the team used a quantum gas microscope to make the individual atoms visible. The study, published in Science, provides an important foundation for future quantum simulations of nuclear physics and materials science.
Ultracold atoms are often employed to construct systems that resemble those found in solid-state physics. In this context, the fermionic atoms play the role of electrons in a solid. This system is unique in that it realizes a Hubbard model, which is one of the most important models for describing the interactions of fermions on a lattice. This approach is considered particularly promising for understanding high-temperature superconductivity.
The standard Hubbard model typically considers two spin states: spin-up and spin-down. A third component makes the system significantly more versatile, enabling researchers to investigate richer quantum mechanical phases.
Light-powered method resurrects ‘dead-end’ compounds for drug discovery
Throughout the drug development process, which can take a decade or more, tens of thousands of chemical compounds are produced that never go on to become medicines. A Florida State University researcher is part of a team that has discovered a new way to give some of these “dead ends” a second chance at becoming the foundation for tomorrow’s blockbuster drugs.
Assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry Bryan Kudisch and his collaborators have developed a light-powered chemical reaction that can transform a difficult-to-repurpose class of compounds known as sulfonamides into useful building blocks for future drug discoveries. Their research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
“Kudisch is a molecular spectroscopist who develops and applies laser-based techniques to measure extraordinarily short-time processes, particularly chemically important processes induced by light,” said Wei Yang, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry chair. “His work demonstrates both exceptional technical ability and extraordinary insight into some of the most fundamental and complex processes in chemistry. This publication addressed an important problem closely related to drug discovery, which is a major strategic area of the FSU ASPIRE initiative.”
Air holes turn silicon wafers into flat ultraviolet focusing mirrors for compact optics
Traditional lenses and mirrors focus light using curved surfaces. Metasurfaces can achieve similar functions with a flat layer of nanoscale structures that locally control the phase of light. Extending these flat optics into the ultraviolet could support compact systems for high-resolution imaging, spectroscopy, and sensing, but it introduces a fundamental materials problem: many of the materials used to make metasurfaces strongly absorb UV light.
Researchers at the University of Stuttgart have developed an alternative approach that turns this limitation on its head. Rather than trying to make an absorbing material transparent, their metasurface confines much of the light inside tiny air-filled cavities etched directly into silicon.
The device focuses reflected ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 325 nm and demonstrates a new approach to controlling light in wavelength ranges where suitable transparent materials can be difficult to find.
AI points researchers toward new disease targets hidden in mitochondria
Artificial intelligence is helping Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists fast-track answers to a long-standing question in human biology: What do hundreds of mystery proteins in the mitochondria actually do?
For years, scientists have known that about 1,100 proteins exist within mitochondria, the energy centers of human cells, but they still don’t know what many of them do.
This presents a problem because mutations in nearly 30% of mitochondrial proteins have been linked to human diseases, from more common conditions like cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to rare inherited metabolic disorders.
Robot successfully builds space structure in first autonomous construction demo
A robotic truss builder that was conceived, designed and built by Caltech researchers has successfully built a structure in space—without the help of astronauts—for the first time. The truss builder, part of DARPA’s Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program, consists of an autonomous manipulator that picks up struts and joints held in nearby dispensers to repeatedly assemble identical sections, or bays, of a perimeter truss.
“This is the first time that a structure has been autonomously constructed in space,” says Sergio Pellegrino, the Joyce and Krent Kresa Professor of Aerospace and Civil Engineering, the Lynn Booth and Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace Leadership Chair, the executive officer for aerospace and a senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA.
Pellegrino is team leader of Caltech’s Autonomous In-Space Tensioned Reflector Assembly (ASTRA) demonstration, a robotic builder that has spent the last six months in space, working to construct a 1.4-meter-diameter (4.6-foot-diameter) reflector antenna from composite fiber tubes, aluminum joints and a Kapton reflective surface.